There are four Masses that we
could attend on Christmas. There is the Vigil Mass celebrated in the afternoon
on Christmas Eve. Then there is the Midnight Mass. There is a Mass celebrated
at dawn. Finally, there is the Mass for Christmas day. Each Mass has a
different set of readings and so unless we get to church real early and read
them all in the missalette, we will never hear the whole story.

All of the Masses begin with
a joyful, exuberant reading from the prophet Isaiah. The reading from the
Midnight Mass is typical:

The
people who walked in darkness

have
seen a great light;

upon
those who dwelt in the land of gloom

a
light has shone.

In the gospels we hear the
story of the birth of Christ as told by St. Matthew and St. Luke. Little by
little the characters in the Nativity scene are introduced. In the vigil Mass
on Christmas eve, Matthew presents us with Mary and Joseph and tells us of
Joseph's decision to take Mary into his house after finding her pregnant. In
the Midnight Mass we find the stable and the manger, and the angels appear to
the shepherds. At dawn, the shepherds go down to Bethlehem to find the child
"lying in the manger." Finally, the gospel on Christmas Day is the
famous beginning of the gospel of John, where John tries to explain the significance
of the great event.

In
the beginning was the Word,

and
the Word was with God,

and
the Word was God.

No matter what Mass we attend
all the readings testify that something unique and earth shattering occurred
2000 years ago. From Isaiah to John we hear that at that moment the darkness
was pierced by a shaft of light and that because this tiny shaft of light
entered the world, the world would never be the same.

Years ago I remember reading
a novel by a little known Russian author about a day in the life of a prisoner
in a Soviet concentration or prison camp. The book was written by a man who had
himself spent 20 years in camps such as the one he described. He wrote the book
secretly while in prison on little scraps of paper which had to be carefully
hidden from the watchful eyes of the prison guards. The book was called
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" and its author was
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who would go on to become one of the greatest authors
of the 20th century.

When Solzhenitsyn's book
first appeared, it was like a shaft of light cutting through the darkness of
the vast Soviet empire. Until that time there were still those who defended
that empire as a noble undertaking, or as the dawn of a new era in human
history. Once the light appeared it exposed the rottenness, corruption, and
brutality of that regime. The world would never be the same. Twenty years later
the whole edifice came crumbling down.

Whatever Mass we attend today
the readings all say the same--the light has come into the world and the world
will never be the same. For each of us this Christmas it can be the same. A
light can come into our hearts and we might never be the same. In the Vigil
Mass we heard how Joseph after his dream, "did as the angel of the Lord
had commanded him and took his wife into his home." For each of us who
will take Mary and her child into their house this Christmas there is the
possibility that our world will never be the same.

In today's Masses the story
begins. We'll hear the rest of the story in the weeks and months to come.